Summary
House, with associated outbuilding, possibly a former detached kitchen. Built in 1474 as a cross-passage house with an open hall. Altered and extended in the C17, and again in the C18, C19, and C20.
Reasons for Designation
Tawton House, with associated outbuilding, possibly a former detached kitchen, in Bishop's Tawton, North Devon is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* for its origins as a late C15, regionally distinctive, local rubble stone and cob, cross-passage house with an open hall, characteristic of Devon vernacular building traditions;
* for its surviving smoke blackened late C15 roof structure and cob wall, which, with the cranked collars to the principal rafters, provide evidence for the ground floor being open to the roof;
* for its evidence for historic carpentry techniques including E-type apexes;
* for its adaptation in the C17 in the form of its rebuilt west wall with a new hall window and lateral stack, and evidence for a two-storey porch to the west end of the cross passage, both prestigious modifications to a medieval house that are characteristic of the C17 period;
* for the legibility of the building’s evolution in its surviving historic fabric and architectural detailing;
* for the survival of a possible former detached kitchen to the east and its potential to yield further evidence for the historic evolution of domestic arrangements.
Historic interest:
* for the evidence provided in its historic fabric for dating and understanding the building’s evolution and the changes in architectural fashions that occurred across the centuries;
* for its specific illustration of the evolution in domestic arrangements from the medieval open-hall house to the heated house of the early-modern period.
History
Bishops Tawton is recorded in the Domesday Book (1087) and during the medieval period was one of the most valuable holdings of the Bishops of Exeter. Tawton House is located to the immediate north of the historic core of the village. Built in about 1474 (dendro-date) the original extent of the house is unclear but is known to have included a cross passage with an open hall to the south, and probably a service end to the north.
In the C17 the west wall of the house was demolished, and a new wall built further forward featuring a lateral stack and a full-height hall window. The insertion of the first floor seems to have been a later C17 addition, and there is evidence for a possible stair turret to the east wall of the house. A two-storey porch was added to the west end of the cross passage.
In the C18 a single-bay, one and a half storey addition was added to the south end, and a single-storey service range added to rear, that included a dairy. A two-storey addition was also added to the rear of the north range.
In the late C18 or early C19 the north range was rebuilt as a symmetrical three-bay range with a hipped roof and a parapet wall. A painting of the house dated 1897 shows that by the late C19 the north range had been remodelled in an Arts and Crafts style with the addition of a veranda across the east elevation, and the insertion of canted bay windows to the outer bays of the first floor. There was applied timber framing to the veranda and aprons of the canted bays. A timber-framed conservatory is also shown to the west of the former two-storey porch. The painting shows thatched hipped roofs, with clay tiles to the roof of the veranda and the single-storey addition to the north. A subsequent photograph from the early C20 shows the building with a pitched roof covered in tiles and the addition of a gable to both the canted-bay windows and the former two-storey porch, both with applied timber framing. By this time the French doors to the veranda had been removed and replaced with windows.
To the rear of the house is a late C18 or early C19 coach house (altered in the mid-C20 and not included in the listing of Tawton House) and a stable. The stable may have origins as a detached kitchen of medieval date.
Former residents of Tawton House include Reverend John James Scott in the mid-C19 and Jorian Jenks in the mid-C20. Reverend John James Scott was the son of John Scott of Clarendon Park who owned a plantation in Jamaica. He was a main beneficiary of the compensation paid to the owners of enslaved people and to their descendants following the abolition of slavery. He is understood to have used the proceeds to build Holy Trinity Church (Grade II*, List entry number 1384982) in nearby Barnstaple. Jenks was a member of the British Union of Fascists, and agricultural adviser to the party’s founder and leader Oswald Mosely.
Details
House, with associated outbuilding, possibly a former detached kitchen. Built in 1474 as a cross-passage house with an open hall. Altered and extended in the C17, and again in the C18, C19, and C20.
MATERIALS: the late-C15 range and the C17 additions are primarily of local rubble stone and cob construction. Later additions are constructed of rubble stone and brick. The whole has been rendered and painted white. The pitched roofs are covered in slate tiles.
PLAN: an evolved linear, single-depth plan comprising the remains of a one and half storey cross-passage house with an open hall to the south. Extended to the west in the C17, and altered to include a first floor. Extended to the south and to the east in the C18. Extended to the north in the late C18 or early C19.
EXTERIOR: the principal elevation (west) is dominated by the late C18 or early C19 range to the north end; the late-C15 range to the south is set back. The north range (of lesser interest) is of two storeys with a symmetrical, two-storey, three-bay façade. The enclosed veranda has a central Tudor-arch on colonnettes with decorative spandrels, leading to a recessed porch with a geometric tiled floor. The panelled and glazed entrance door has a decorative door surround with castellated detail to the lintel. To the central bay of the first floor is a six-over-six, hornless sash window flanked by canted bay windows with horned, plate glass sash windows beneath a gabled roof.
To the right is a set-forward gabled bay that appears to have been built as a two-storey porch in the C17 and has a three-light timber mullion window with plate glass sash windows to the first floor. There is a C20 conservatory in front of the ground floor. The setback south range is of one and a half storeys. To the left, is a lateral stack with a single-storey C19 addition in front, and, to the right, a full-height hall window with C19 multi-pane casements. The bay to the right is an C18 addition, with a large window to the ground floor and a three-light casement window to the first floor. To its south elevation is a brick stack, with deeply overhanging eaves beyond. There is an inserted sash window to the right.
To the rear is an C18 dairy under a catslide roof. It has a two-light casement window with mesh panels and a timber plank awning on chamfered brackets. The six-panel door has a simple gabled porch canopy on curved brackets with finials. To the right, to the rear of the former cross passage, is a C19 single-storey lean-to with a two, and a three-light casement window. There is a three-light window to the first floor. The two-storey bay to the right extends forward with a six-light window to the first floor of the south elevation, a small inserted window to the ground and first floor of the east elevation, and to the north elevation an eight-over-eight sash window to the first floor and a small horned sash window below. Between the angle of this two-storey projection and the rear elevation of the north range is a flat-roofed, two-storey addition, with a pointed-arch opening to the lean-to porch to the north. The first floor has applied timber framing with a casement window above the porch and a sash window to the ground and first floor of the east elevation. There is a lateral stack with a tall tapered shaft to the rear of the north range, and a sash window to the first floor.
The north elevation is blind with applied close studding to the first floor. It has a late C19 flat-roofed single-storey addition with a parapet to the east and west wall, and windows to each of its three sides.
INTERIOR: the principal entrance is via the panelled and glazed C19 door from the veranda. It leads to a central entrance hall, with a re-ordered early C19 staircase. There is the scar of a wide basket archway to the north wall; this is now blocked with an inserted late-C19 doorway.
The south range has narrower proportions and the historic core is defined by the remains of battered rubble stone and cob walls to the south, east, and north. The C17 west wall has an altered hall window and a lateral stack which has been adapted to incorporate a smaller C19 opening with mantleshelf; the range has been removed. There is a later C17 cross axial spine beam. To the east wall is a C17 plank door in a pegged frame which is thought to have led to an external stair turret.
The wall to the south end of the open hall house extends to the roof apex and is smoke blackened. The west section of this wall was added in the C17 to accommodate the altered roof pitch, and is not smoke blackened. The smoke-blackened, late C15 roof structure comprises principal rafters (of possible raised cruck construction) with an E-type apex (meaning the blades are jointed together diagonally), two rows of butt purlins, pegged common rafters (primarily to the east side), morticed, tenoned and pegged cranked collars (indicating open trusses), and the ridge piece. There are some C18 roof trusses relating to the hipped roof over the north range. The pitch roof structure above is early C20.
Throughout are plank and panelled doors, with associated door furniture. These range in date from the C17 to the early C20. Much of the dado-height panelling is early C20, with some added in the early C21.
OUTBUILDINGS: the one and a half storey building to the east is a possible former detached kitchen. It is square on plan, with battered rubble stone and cob walls. It was converted to a stable in around 1800. The cobble stone floor, stall partitions, and the steeply-pitched hipped roof structure date from this phase.
